OC Developer Alleges Political Bribe Demand
May 23, 1978
Joe Cordero
Charley Roberts
Political strategist Fred Harber allegedly demanded from an OC developer in 1974 a payoff of $10,000 plus $2,000 per month in behalf of county supervisor Ronald Caspers shortly before Harber and Caspers were lost at sea off Baja California.The allegation by developer Richard V. Jordan was part of a lawsuit in which the county agreed to pay Jordan $700,000 for illegally revoking a building permit on a planned mobile home development.Jordan’s allegations were contained in a sworn deposition which was to have been kept secret as part of the county’s agreement to pay the $700,000, but The Register demanded it Monday as a public record.Jordan’s development was to have been near El Toro in Caspers’ supervisorial district.In his sworn statement, Jordan said after the permit was revoked he was contacted by Harber and told what it would take to solve his problem. Jordan said:“He wanted $10,000 now and $2,000 per month. And I said, ‘How long does this $2,000 go on?’ And he said. ‘How long do you plan to develop in Orange County?’”Harber said that he would keep part of the money, and the balance would go to “make large loans to people running for political office,” according to Jordan’s deposition.
Harber The meeting with Harber was a preliminary to Jordan’s meeting with Caspers in a rubber raft off Cabo San Lucas in which there was additional conversation about the payoff, Jordan said in his four-part deposition.He explained that he had been invited to go to the Mexican resort town by Caspers after the meeting with Harber.The men traveled below the border in early May 1974 in Harber’s 62-foot yacht, Shooting Star.The three men returned to the country by air, Caspers to campaign successfully for re-election in the June 1974 primary, Harber to guide Caspers’ and others’ campaigns, and Jordan to map a plan to set up Harber and Caspers.Jordan’s deposition describes how he and his attorney, Robert (Sam) Barnes, planned to make the payoff with marked money with the cooperation of the district attorney’s office.“After we’ve cleared it with District Attorney Cecil Hicks…that we’ll arrange for me to go back to Fred Harber and pay him the money, in marked bills. The exact details of the plan were not worked out at this time, but were, I think, that the District Attorney’s office was going to be involved in how we would work it out,” Jordan said.But before the plan could be executed, Caspers was re-elected and he, Harber, and eight other men flew down to Cabo San Lucas for a victory party and return trip on the Shooting Star.On June 13, 1974, the yacht was reported sunk in the general vicinity of Cedros Island off Baja California. There were no known survivors and all aboard have since been declared legally dead.Jordan also was to have been part of the victory party’s ill-fated return trip but declined because he did not trust the seaworthiness of the yacht, a friend said.Jordan could not be reached for comment Monday. He was reported to be vacationing in Florida.In the aftermath of the Shooting Star’s sinking, Jordan filed a multimillion dollar suit against the county claiming that he suffered a severe financial setback because of the county’s illegal revocation of the building permit.According to Jordan’s statement, Caspers opposed the development in El Toro.Judge Walter Smith last month accepted the agreed upon $700,000 settlement and ruled that the county had acted illegally in revoking the permit. The settlement was paid off by the county’s insurance carrier.“Defendant by its action has taken and misappropriated a valuable property right belonging to plaintiff and has deprived plaintiff of the use and enjoyment of said property, all to plaintiff’s damage, “Smith said.The suit was brought by Jordan in the name of his company, Shelter Industries, which was to have built on a 46[?]-acre parcel, known as the Hall Ranch.In February 1972, Jordan purchased the parcel after receiving assurances from county officials that it could be developed as a mobile home park, his suit said.Construction and use permits for such a development had been obtained nearly one year before by the previous owner, Thomas Hall, who commenced ground clearance prior to the sale so those permits would not expire.By July 1973 Shelter Industries had spent $150,000 on grading, according to court documents. The following month, the county granted the firm an extension on its use permit.However, at that point Caspers reportedly told Jordan that he had changed his mind about allowing a mobile home park to be built on the site and would prefer condominiums there instead.Caspers provided the swing vote on the board to allow development of the land as a mobile home park and loss of his support was crucial to continued construction.Eight months’ delay in construction followed as Jordan attempted to change his project to condominiums. A profit could not be made on such a project. Jordan finally concluded, and he resumed the mobile home park development.On April 30, 1974, he was served a stop work order from the county building department.This was followed by a letter from that department’s head, Floyd McLellan, advising Shelter Industries that its permits were “null and void.”By then the firm had about $2 million invested in the project, including $485,000[?] in direct improvement cost.Shelter Industries spent 14 months winning reinstatement of the permits but by then construction costs had skyrocketed along with interest rates and it lost its financing and finally the property, too. The firm filed against the county, claiming it had a vested right to complete the 300-unit mobile home park because of its reliance on the county’s statements.In his ruling, Judge Smith said the county had no discretion or authority to suspend Shelter Industries’ permits and the county’s action constituted an unlawful deprivation of the owner’s use of the land without compensation.
